Wedding Weekend

My brother Matthew got married a couple of weekends ago in Augusta, GA, and Sarah was asked to be their flower girl. She was very excited at first, but as our trip drew closer, she started to get a little more hesitant about the idea. I'm happy to say though that her reservations quickly faded once she saw Kate, my brother's new wife, and all of the other girls. She was so excited to be "one of the girls" for the weekend and everyone kept commenting on what a wonderful job she did. Steve & I were just hoping she actually walked down the aisle once the doors to the church opened, but she walked down with a big smile on her face and we couldn't have been more proud. :-)

As part of her "big weekend," I promised Sarah I would take her to get her first pedicure on Friday morning. She didn't really know what to expect, but the thought of getting to pick out her own nail polish was enough to get her in the door. We found a little shop near the hotel and we both had the best time. They even did a little flower on each big toe which she absolutely loved! Not to worry though, her shoes for the wedding were little ballet shoes so the flowers didn't show for the big day. :-) I also asked the girls to paint her finger nails, a lighter shade of course, so she was very proud of herself when we were done.

Here are a few pictures from our trip to the "Nail Garden!" :-)


Getting started...feet in the bath!

The massage tickled a bit, but she did great!

Getting the polish.

I had to have a picture of this. Too cute!

The finished product. :-)


On Saturday morning we attended a bridal brunch with everyone and then went and had our hair done for the wedding. Neither Kate nor myself really had any special ideas for Sarah's hair so we let the girls at the salon work their magic. Sarah loves the curls she gave her and even commented on how she looked like "Apple Dumplin," one of her baby dolls. She looked so cute when it was done, but it was a challenge to keep it looking so nice for the rest of the afternoon.

Here she is at the salon. :-)




Curls anyone? :-)

Finally, here are some pictures of Sarah in her dress. She loved being with Kate and the bridesmaids and didn't seem to be scared or nervous at all. In fact, at one point I had gone to see Matthew and she told Steve that he could leave too so she could hang out with the girls by herself. :-) Right before the ceremony, Kate gave her a pearl bracelet to match the one she received from my brother as a wedding gift. Needless to say, Sarah was very excited about this and wanted to show everyone. It was a wonderful weekend and we're so happy everything went so well!

For more pictures please be sure to check out the slide show on the right hand side of the page. Enjoy!


Sarah in her dress.

Sarah & Kate with their bracelets. :-)

Sarah & Daddy

Emily - 9 Months

Emily turned 9 months old this past Saturday and I wanted to share some recent pictures of her "photo shoot." :-) We visited our good friend Dr. Sanders last week for her 9 month check-up and she currently weighs 17 lbs., 13oz. and is 28 1/4" long. This put her in the 35% and 96% percentiles, respectively.

She's been crawling for awhile now, but it is still the military style where she drags her lower half across the floor. We've been trying to work with her on putting her knees on the ground, but so far, she doesn't seem the least bit interested. She's also started to pull up a little bit the past couple of days so we're curious to see how the next few weeks go. Pulling up at this point is pretty much just getting her chest and waist off the floor, but it's a start. She also loves it when you stand her at some type of toy or table so she's definitely starting to realize there is more to life than hanging out on the floor.

Last week we finally said good-bye to the baby bathtub we were using and she is now in the big tub. She really seems to love the water and will usually flip to her belly and float around rather than sit on her bottom. This certainly makes it tough to get her clean, but she has the best time...especially if her big sister is in there with her. :-)

Here are some recent pictures of Miss Emily! Enjoy!


Emily with Mr. Ears the bunny.


Standing at her table.


Another "big girl" job...feeding herself! Certainly a messy endeavor!

Emily's Baptism

I'm a little late with this post, but I wanted to share with everyone pictures from Emily's baptism at the end of February. We decided to do this the same weekend as Sarah's birthday since my family would be in town, and while it was a very busy weekend, it was definitely the right decision. It was so nice to have both my mom & dad here to celebrate with us and to see this very special moment in Emily's life.

Steve & I have become very close with our church family and it meant a lot to us to have Pastor Herb perform the baptism. Everyone at Clay is wonderful and has made our family feel so loved and we are blessed to have them in our lives. We look forward to watching our children grow in their faith and their love of God through the wonderful teachings and experiences Clay provides.


Pastor Herb performing Emily's baptism.





Steve, Emily, and Grandma. This is Steve Grandma and Emily's Great-Grandma!



Sarah & Emily at brunch following the service.

The two pictures below are from the "professional" shoot we did.

Emily - 8 Months

As promised, here are Emily's 8 month pictures. We're traveling right now and forgot to bring along "Mr. Ears," so my apologies for not including that one this time. Emily has finally mastered the art of sitting (without needing someone or something standing behind her) and she is beyond pleased with herself. :-) She is finally able to enjoy some of the toys she got for Christmas because she can actually sit with them and explore all of their sounds, textures, and movement.

She is also starting to scoot across the floor a bit on her belly so we're guessing crawling won't be too far off. She tends to get a bit frustrated from time to time when trying to get from A to B, but she figures it out.

She still loves to smile and flash those gums...no teeth yet. :-/ She'll smile for anyone, but Sarah is still the only one who can really get her to laugh. It's fun to watch the two of them interact and to see how Emily just stares at her. Very sweet!

Enjoy!








The kid has got some crazy hair so we're currently trying out hair bows. The jury is still out. :-)

Cool kid

I'm long overdue for some recent pictures of the kids, but I hope these two of Emily will make you smile. I promise to have her 8 month pictures up soon so be sure to check back. :-)

Sarahpalooza

It's hard to believe, but my baby girl turned four years old a couple of weeks ago! Everyone told me it would go fast and boy, they weren't kidding. It's amazing for me to look back on these last four years and see how much she has changed in such a short amount of time. She seemed to go from baby to toddler to young girl in the blink of an eye and I couldn't be more proud of the person she is becoming!

To say she has a strong personality would be an understatement, but she also has a good heart and is such a caring little girl. She is a wonderful big sister and has more love to give than Emily can handle at times, but it's going to be so much fun watching them grow together and see that special bond develop.

Happy Birthday to my first little baby girl! I love you and am so proud to be your mom! Thank you for allowing me to go on this amazing journey with you!!


The birthday girl!


For a number of reasons we started referring to this year's birthday for Sarah as "Sarahpalooza" because it just kept going and going. Her actual birthday was on a Monday, but we had mini celebrations on Monday, two on Thursday, and then the big one the following Saturday. At first we were worried that she would be upset to not have all of the festivities at one time, but she didn't seem to mind at all since each one meant more cake, ice cream, and of course presents! :-)

For her "big" party this year, she wanted to do a princess theme with all of her girlfriends. We invited everyone to dress as their favorite princess and join us for a Royal Ball! The girls had a lot of fun making their own wands & tiaras and we even had a special "dress up" area where they could pick out different jewels, etc. to wear to the ball. :-)

When everyone was ready, they rode two at a time down the "red carpet" to the ballroom! Daddy truly outdid himself this year by making the carriage everyone rode in. It's amazing what you can do with some cardboard, velcro, lace, and a Red Flyer wagon! :-) The carriage was the hit of the party and has yet to be disassembled!

Once at the ball, the girls had fun dancing and playing games. It was a lot of fun to just sit back and watch them run around and laughing and enjoying themselves. Again, some Christmas lights and balloons and they were happy! Even after the cake had been eaten and the presents opened, they all wanted to go back and dance some more!

A big note of thanks to all of the grandparents for their help in making this year's party a success! Whether it was hanging lights, helping with the cake, or watching the birthday girl so we could get everything together...your help was invaluable!! Thank you all soooo much!! :-)

Below are just a couple of pictures from the party. Please check out the slide show on the right hand side for a lot more pictures of Sarahpalooza!


The princesses!


The cake...


The royal carriage...

Emily - 7 Months

Emily is 7 months old now and changing more and more each day. It was slow going at first, but she's eating her "solid" food like a champ now and we even seem to be more on a daily schedule. Yeah!! She's also been sleeping through the night for a couple of weeks now which I'm very happy about. :-)

She can sit unassisted, but not for very long. She likes to go stiff and launch herself backwards so sitting for long periods of time is still a work in progress. I've noticed in the past couple of days though that she's starting to get on all fours a little bit. Who knows, maybe she'll crawl before she sits! :-)

She's so much fun and loves to smile...at anyone! It seems at times she'll actually look at someone until she gets their attention and then give them the biggest smile she can. It's so cute to watch! She's also starting to "talk" more and more...which is an absolute must in this family. :-) I don't know if I'd call them her first words just yet, but she's been saying "da da" a lot lately.

Here are a few pictures from this month's photo shoot. It's getting harder and harder to get these with the sign so we took more candids this time around. Enjoy!


Emily with Mr. Ears







The following are her 6 months pictures that we had taken.




Emily in her baptism dress.